WalkBoston and the Public Realm N 3 minute walk T MBTA Station As Massachusetts’ leading advocate for safe and 9 enjoyable walking environments, WalkBoston works w with local and state agencies to accommodate walkers | in all parts of the public realm: sidewalks, streets, bridges, shopping areas, plazas, trails and parks. By B a o
working to make an increasingly safe and more s attractive pedestrian network, WalkBoston creates t l o
more transportation choices and healthier, greener, n k more vibrant communities. Please volunteer and/or C
join online at www.walkboston.org. o B The center of Boston’s public realm is Boston m Common and the Public Garden, where the pedestrian m o network is easily accessible on foot for more than o 300,000 Downtown, Beacon Hill and Back Bay workers, n
& shoppers, visitors and residents. These walkways s
are used by commuters, tourists, readers, thinkers, t h talkers, strollers and others during lunch, commutes, t e
and on weekends. They are wonderful places to walk o P
— you can find a new route every day. Sample walks: u b
Boston Common Loops n l i
• Perimeter/25 minute walk – Park St., Beacon St., c
MacArthur, Boylston St. and Lafayette Malls. G
• Central/15 minute walk – Lafayette, Railroad, a
MacArthur Malls and Mayor’s Walk. r d
• Bandstand/15 minute walk – Parade Ground Path, e
Beacon St. Mall and Long Path. n Public Garden Loops • Perimeter/15 minute walk – Boylston, Charles, Beacon and Arlington Paths. • Swans and Ducklings/8 minute walk – Lagoon Paths. Public Garden & Boston Common • Mid-park/10 minute walk – Mayor’s, Haffenreffer Walks. • Perimeter Common & Garden Loop/40 minute walk – Beacon, Arlington, Boylston Paths; Boylston St., Lafayette, Park St. and Beacon St. Malls. ©
walkBoston W a l k
MAKING OUR COMMUNITIES MORE WALKABLE B o s t Old City Hall | 45 School Street | Boston MA 02108 | T: 617.367.9255 o n
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F: 617.367.9285 | [email protected] | www.walkboston.org / 0 9 Boston Common General Douglas MacArthur [Charles Street] Mall Railroad Mall Beacon and Arlington Paths • At Beacon and Charles Streets is the only remaining • Route used by Abraham Lincoln and others to walk to • Ether Monument – memorializes the first successful Boston Common [1634] is America’s first public park original gate from the 1836 fence around the Common. the former Providence train station in Park Square. use of anesthetic during surgery [1846] in the US. — 50 acres purchased at the edge of the colonial • MacArthur Mall follows the original Back Bay shore - • Parkman Bandstand [1912] has concentric sidewalks • G. R. White statue – philanthropist. town for the common use as a place to train line where British Redcoats left Boston for Lexington surrounding a music and theatric performance pavilion. • Two fountains – on either side of the Washington soldiers and graze cattle. For 200 years residents and Concord by rowboats in shallow waters. • Central Burying Ground [1754] is an early graveyard for equestrian statue: a small child, a boy with a bird. inhabitants and, during the Revolution, British soldiers. • 9/11 Garden of Remembrance – for the 200 victims walked through the Common’s treeless meadows on Mayor’s Walk of 9/11 with connections to Massachusetts. informal paths. Colonial and British soldiers camped • Brewer Fountain was donated by Gardner Brewer Parade Ground Path and marched here. The grazing cows were evicted who purchased it at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. • The Parade Ground is where colonial militia trained, Charles Path from the Common in 1830, when the city’s growth • Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a lavish Civil War British Redcoats camped, and Pope John Paul II • Statue of Edward Everett Hale [1913], U.S. Senate surrounded the park. Starting with George memorial with peaceful maidens [including Liberty] spoke to 400,000 people. chaplain, author of Man Without a Country . Washington, all US presidents have walked its paths. and military men leaving for war and [luckily] returning. • Flagstaff Hill is marked by an 1837 flagpole, moved • Bagheera fountain [1986], representing the black The first path to be named, Lafayette Mall, honors • A WWI defused mine and a memorial to military here in 1866; in the 19th century it was the only area panther in Kipling’s The Jungle Book . the 1825 visit of the legendary Frenchman who had nurses are near Soldiers and Sailors Monument. where smoking was allowed within the Common. Lagoon Path trained colonial troops in our Revolution. This mall Lafayette Mall • Make Way for Ducklings statues [1987] by Nancy was a popular promenade adjacent to fashionable • America’s first subway is located underneath this The Public Garden Schön – Fictional Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, residences on Tremont Street. At the time a “mall” mall, with grand entrances and vintage streetcars on Ouack, Pack and Quack imagined in a real setting. was a walkway in a park, set off by trees, shrubs, or display in Boylston Station. Boston’s Public Garden is the nation’s first public • Swan Boats and Dock – signature watercraft begun flowers—perhaps derived from London’s celebrated • Raised beds above the subway are filled with flowers botanical garden. Until 1814, its 25 acres were submerged in 1877 and still operated by the Paget family. under the waters of Back Bay. When Beacon Street was Pall Mall—a street along a field where pall mall [a in spring, summer and fall. Haffenreffer Walk extended along the Charles River atop a tidal-power precursor of croquet] was played. • Monuments commemorate the Boston Massacre, the • George Washington – equestrian statue [1869]. Declaration of Independence, Commodore John Barry dam, the stagnant pond it created produced odors and A 1911 plan formalized the location of the Common’s • Foot Bridge [1867] – once the world’s shortest [founder of the American Navy], Marquis de Lafayette filth upsetting to residents. In 1837 landfill began at malls and paths, lined by trees. Prepared by land - suspension bridge. and the establishment of the Common in 1634. the Public Garden. A combined conservatory and aviary scape architect Arthur Shurcliff, the plan realigned • Seasonal flowers – annual show along this path. • Parkman Plaza holds Art Deco statues of Industry, was built privately and later burned, leaving the existing paths, created new routes between focal Learning and Religion around a central flowerbed. Garden in controversy. Following an overwhelming Thank you members/sponsors points, and made additions to the park, such as the • Visitor Information Center is the start of the Freedom public vote in 1856 to retain the Garden as a public Parkman Bandstand and the baseball fields. Trail and provides restrooms year-round. amenity, architect George Meacham won the design Racewalker Most of the cast iron fences surrounding the Common competition for the Public Garden – a $100 award. Blue Cross Blue Shield Park Street Mall of Massachusetts were torn down for their metal during WWII. A parking • Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment In contrast with Boston Common, the Public Garden garage was added under the Parade Ground in 1960. Memorial is a celebrated sculpture by Augustus Saint- has changed little since it was built. It includes fountains, Striders The Common’s open space hosts the enormous Gaudens of free Black soldiers leading an 1863 Union memorials, statues of ducklings, and rare and beautiful Liz Levin & Company crowds associated with speakers such as Pope John attack [featured in the movie Glory ]. trees have been planted and labeled. The heart of the Mass Convention Center Authority MassPort Paul II, displays such as First Night ice sculptures, • WWI monument, the stairway beside the 54th Public Garden is the irregularly-shaped Lagoon with Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp. fireworks and some 300 events annually including Regiment Memorial, is dedicated to the “Great War.” the famous swan boats and a small suspension bridge, Solomon Fund sports team parades, outdoor theater and festivals. all part of the original design. It is truly a “period piece” Long Path [Oliver Wendell Holmes Walk] from the 19th century. Strollers Malls/paths/landmarks • Holmes, an author whose poem “Old Ironsides” Boston Society of Architects Parsons Brinckerhoff helped save the USS Constitution , wrote of this path. Paths/landmarks Eaton Vance Planners Collaborative Beacon Street Mall • Frog Pond is a winter skating rink [with restrooms] and a Epsilon Associates The Boston Foundation • Founders’ Memorial honors Boston’s Puritan summer wading pool. In 1848 a fountain spurted water Boylston Path statues Friends of the Public Garden Tufts Medical Center settlers who arrived in 1630. from Boston’s first reservoir, 90 feet; 100,000 celebrated. • Rev. William Ellery Channing – of Arlington St. Church Goody Clancy Vanasse Hangen Brustlin • Guild Steps at Joy St., an ornate entrance, honors • Site of the Great Elm where, it is said, Boston hanged • Charles Sumner – antislavery Massachusetts Senator Hines Development Whole Foods Market Curtis Guild, MA governor/ambassador to Russia. pirates, witches and religious dissenters. • Tadeus Kosciuszko – Polish patriot aided our Revolution Mass. General Hospital WilmerHale • Oneida Tablet commemorates the first US football • Snack bars are at the Frog Pond in winter and at • Thomas Cass – Civil War Colonel NStar game [1862] played by an organized team. Boylston Station subway entrance in summer. • Wendell Phillips – abolitionist/antislavery activist Design | ninagarfinkle.com Text | Bob Sloane